"No," Wu Youren said with a shake of his head, looking somewhat displeased. "It scared me so much I don't even dare stay at Red Pine."
"Not staying at Red Pine is fine too," the horned owl nodded. "Legacy weapons are indeed a massive pain."
"That's true... Wait." The youth paused, suddenly registering what he had just heard. "You're not afraid anymore?"
"It's one of the uses of the Shadow-Splitting Yue," Chen Quanxu answered casually. "Afraid? Sure I am, but whispering a few complaints about it won't hurt."
"Then why don't you elaborate?" Wu Youren was more than a little curious about such things.
"I can't say too much either." The horned owl lifted a talon and tapped the wall beneath its feet. "Take this Rust Belt you keep talking about—do you know how it came to be?"
"It was once industrialized, but fell into ruin," Wu Youren answered without hesitation. He had heard Ailin mention this before; though she had been vague, the general answer had to be right.
"Then why did it fall into ruin?"
*What kind of question is that?* The youth shook his head. "No idea. Wasn't me."
"As if you could." Chen Quanxu choked a bit at the retort, though he was well aware of the limits of the boy's knowledge. "It's because the efficacy of the legacy weapon degraded."
According to him, legacy weapons were not just responsible for combat; they also sustained civilian life. Strictly speaking, such weapons were relics passed down from the previous human era.
Any information regarding that previous human era was taboo, known only to a tiny fraction of people at the very top of each nation.
"Like Hao Wei?" Wu Youren suddenly recalled how the Guard Captain had spoken about such topics with blatant disregard.
"What makes him so special?" Chen Quanxu scoffed disdainfully. "He was merely lucky enough to be authenticated. He knows even less than I do!"
"The previous era..." The youth pondered for a moment before asking, "Does that include things like photography and video recording?"
"Spot on!" the horned owl replied without hesitation. "Those are all treasures left behind by the ancestors. Alas... the knowledge was lost. No one can understand how they work anymore."
*Give me a second to catch my breath,* Wu Youren thought, feeling as if his brain were running short on oxygen. "How many years ago was the previous era? I don't know a thing about this."
"I don't know much more than you do," Chen Quanxu admitted, finally dropping his airs since the boy had bluntly confessed his ignorance. There was really no sense of accomplishment in posturing before someone like that. "How long ago was the previous era... perhaps no one truly knows!"
It was a strange answer, yet that was the reality.
Known existing human civilization had been developing for roughly two to three thousand years. However, throughout that span, not a single civilization had endured from start to finish, and most written languages had failed to survive.
As a result, those two to three thousand years of history were an utter mess, with several eras suffering complete breaks in continuity. The historical records that did survive were more absurd and fantastical than novels.
Chen Quanxu's assessment was: "The history books are fresher than the crap I took yesterday!"
Only in the past five hundred years, as ability masters rose to prominence and contact between nations markedly increased, had history become somewhat reliable.
Don't blame an author for bizarre worldbuilding; the development of this world was far more bizarre than any author's imagination!
In terms of cultivation systems, the knight system had likely existed for over a millennium—yes, only "likely." Who invented it? Among mainstream theories, there were seven or eight variations, while contentious claims numbered in the dozens. As for niche theories... forget it, no need to pad the word count.
The Guizu had appeared a thousand years ago, and the ability master system had emerged eight hundred years ago; these were facts generally accepted by the public. Yet credible international history spanned less than five hundred years. If you asked whether that sounded like nonsense... it absolutely was.
As for when word of legacy weapons had first leaked out, that was hard to pinpoint, likely around the time the ability master system appeared. Strictly speaking, the information had never spread widely, and anyone who was loose-lipped suffered dire consequences.
It was precisely because of this that not only did Chen Quanxu refrain from mentioning it, but even Instructor Hong forbade subordinate instructors from discussing the topic. The Duke of Wei's illegitimate son had seemed bolder, but thinking back carefully... had he really said that much?
In truth, even the present Chen Quanxu still dared not say more. He had merely used the existence of the Rust Belt to tell Wu Youren that the weapon's terrifying might was beyond imagination, so he should bring it up as little as possible.
The youth indicated he understood, then could not help asking, "Then in total... at least among what's known, how many human eras have there been?"
Sure enough, the horned owl replied, "Knowing about the last one is already lucky enough. As for those ancient histories, believe whatever you want to believe!"
Wu Youren pondered a moment before saying, "The history of Great Jin should at least be somewhat reliable, right?"
Chen Quanxu paused for a long while before replying, "A realm protector lives for two hundred years. Being able to trust roughly the last five hundred years of history is already not bad."
This answer rendered the youth entirely speechless. They truly were... living in the moment.
After a while, he shook his head. There was no point dwelling on things so far removed. More importantly, he had other business to attend to. He raised his hands and formed an incantation seal, causing the ground beneath to churn.
"Hold on, what are you..." The horned owl stared in shock. "Who taught you that move?"
*The hand seal?* Wu Youren glanced at him. "I sense the various elements and use hand gestures as an aid. It boosts efficiency and lowers consumption."
Chen Quanxu was struck dumb once again. After a moment, he asked, "You figured that out yourself?"
The youth looked at him suspiciously. "Is it hard?"
"Well... not overly hard," the horned owl answered after some deliberation. "But what are you muttering under your breath?"
The youth replied without hesitation, "Also an auxiliary method."
"That is extremely hard!" Chen Quanxu declared without hesitation.
He had indeed heard of using hand gestures to aid spellcasting. He had even been inspired by the concept himself and had derived a few similar techniques. However, the execution was exceedingly difficult and the results unstable, so he had never brought it up with the boy.
Wu Youren was merely a wild, self-taught caster who had fumbled his way through cultivation from the very beginning, yet he had managed to invent an entire set of hand seals.
Such talent was genuinely terrifying.
As for using vocal sounds to assist in casting, Chen Quanxu could only concede that in theory, perhaps... maybe it could work. Yet that was not all. What baffled him even more was, "What are you actually muttering?"
"Well..." The youth thought for a moment. "Pronunciations, obviously."
*No shit, you think I don't know it's pronunciation?* Chen Quanxu felt rather exasperated. "Why does it sound to me like a language?"
"No way?" Wu Youren was stunned. He had mumbled it so indistinctly, yet the owl could still pick up on it?
What he had been chanting was a language he knew from before his transmigration. The hand seals and incantations had indeed been pieced together bit by bit through trial and error; otherwise, his spells cost too much energy and took relatively longer to cast. The incantation in particular simply lacked the right punch when chanted in the local language of this world. Without comparison, there was no harm done, but different systems inevitably led to differences in fine details—that much had to be acknowledged.
He had only refrained from hiding this because he was in Chen Quanxu's presence. Had it been any native of Liang who witnessed his spellcasting, he would have silenced them on the spot! Even so, Wu Youren had truly not expected this fellow's powers of observation to be so remarkably sharp.
Fortunately, a moment later, a box churned up from beneath the soil, successfully diverting the owl's attention.
Wu Youren opened the metal box to reveal a leather pouch, inside of which lay the orange seed from before.
By now, the orange seed had changed color, turning a hazy mist-white with a faintly translucent texture. The previous traces of black had not vanished entirely, but they had become faint and indistinct. At first glance, it looked like a piece of slightly flawed jade, albeit with a rather peculiar shape.
"This is..." The horned owl's eyes went wide and round, its gaze turning fixed.
"It turned out like this after I dug it up," Wu Youren stated solemnly. "It feels somewhat extraordinary, but I have no clue what to make of it."
The horned owl hopped over, reached out a talon to scratch at it, and declared crisply, "A flawless crystal!"
*Sounds like good stuff!* The youth thought for a moment before asking, "Does it contain no resentment?"
"Correct!" The horned owl tightened the drawstring of the pouch and looked up at him. "It's valuable. Extremely valuable!"
Wu Youren nodded slightly. "Just the size alone makes it valuable!"
The resentment crystals he had obtained in the past were only the size of a thumbpad; one the size of a quail egg was already considered large. This crystal, however, rivaled an extra-large chicken egg—the kind where seven made a jin.
"The key is that it's flawless!" the horned owl snapped, annoyed. Did this brat miss the point entirely? "It's flawless!"
Resentment crystals were widely used among ability masters, serving practically as a universal hard currency. However, using them carried side effects, the reason lying in the word "resentment." Using one or two occasionally was harmless, but frequent use caused resentment to accumulate within the body.
It was just like pill toxin left behind in cultivators who consumed too many medicinal pills. Once enough of it accumulated, it led to personality shifts and stalled advancement; in severe cases, it could cause split personalities or even qi deviation.
Many chose not to use resentment crystals not because they couldn't, but because they feared the side effects, or because their bodies had already accumulated too much resentment. Some methods for purging bodily resentment had been developed, but most were mediocre in efficacy and could rarely eradicate the root problem.
With a flawless crystal, however, there were no such lingering worries.
Wu Youren considered this and asked, "Is it useful to you?"
"It might be very useful to you as well," the horned owl answered after a slight hesitation. "Aren't you worried about qi deviation too?"
"It does have some use," Wu Youren nodded. He wasn't so obtuse that he couldn't even sense that much. It could increase his experience points, though the boost was fairly modest, only gentler by comparison. He viewed it as a relatively mild spirit stone, though he had never actually encountered spirit stones, nor had he used the orange seed before. Deep down, he felt somewhat repulsed by using the thing—if he could plunder national destiny, why bother using excrement?
In short, the item was useful to him, but not critically so.
"Is it... can it extend your life?"
"Its life-extending efficacy surpasses that of the Shadow-Splitting Yue," the horned owl answered without hesitation. "My current weakness... is partly due to the excessive use of crystals."
Chapter 210